It’s easy for those entrusted with POWER to rob generations to come. Pork coming out the ears now while they ignore their real work and responsibilities, these thieves leave conscience on the doorstep while trampling VALUES in every sense of the word. Taking candy from babies is an understatement. (Vanderbilt – ‘09)

When is enough, enough? The Senate is poised today to vote on a$410 billion spending bill today covering foreign aid and domestic agency budgets which includes some 8,000 earmark pet projects. Even some Democrats realize that the American public does not have the stomach for the continued drunken sailor spending and that there will be hell to pay come midterm elections.

Hey America, how do you like these apples? So many Americans did not get pay raises this year due to the economic hard times and the government tells corporate America that CEO’s and officers should not get them either. Yet, in the $410 billion Omnibus bill, politicians get an automatic pay raise. There is an amendment to make politicians stand up and be accountable for their pay raise. Accountability? NEVER!!!

Warren Buffet spoke on the economy that has fallen off the cliff. The most interesting thing that Buffet said was that people are confused, worried and scared. Buffet says that Democrats and Republicans should unite under Obama leadership. Wrong Mr. Buffet. If Barack Obama had actually provided leadership, clarity and transparency the American people would not be confused, worried and scared. The problem is he has created fear from his doom and gloom and people are worried about traveling down a socialist path.

Buffett called on Democratic and Republican policymakers to set aside partisan differences and unite under the leadership of President Barack Obama to wage an “economic war” that will fix the economy and restore confidence in banking.

He urged policymakers and regulators to communicate their efforts better to the public, though he stopped short of major, specific policy recommendations.

“People are confused and scared,” he said. “People can’t be worried about banks, and a lot of them are.”

Comments

29 Responses to “Barack Obama Omnibus Bill, Budget and Spending … How Much Will Our Children & Grand Children Have to Pay?”

buster on
March 10th, 2009 1:49 pm

The following speech is by Senator Tom Coburn (R) from Oklahoma. He is the only MD in the Senate.

THE STIMULUS IS A STEP TOWARDS A SOVIET AMERICA
Written by Senator Tom Coburn
Tuesday, 10 February 2009

[Senator Coburn recently gave this speech on the floor of the Senate]

We are going in exactly the wrong direction. We ought to be standing on the principles that made this country great.

There ought to be a review of every program in the Federal Government that is not effective, that is not efficient, that is wasteful or fraudulent, and we ought to get rid of it right now. We ought to say, Gone, to be able to pay for a real stimulus plan that might, in fact, have some impact.

I would be remiss if I didn’t remind everybody that next week we are going to hear from the Obama administration wanting another $500 billion. Outside of this ["stimulus" bill], they are going to want another $500 billion to handle the banking system.

I want to make sure the American people know what is in this Stimulus bill. I think once they know what is in this bill, they are going to reject it out of hand. Let me read for my colleagues some of the things that are in this bill.

The biggest earmark in history is in this bill. There is $2 billion in this bill to build a coal plant with zero emissions. That would be great, maybe, if we had the technology, but the greatest brains in the world sitting at MIT say we don’t have the technology yet to do that.

Why would we build a $2 billion power plant we don’t have the technology for that we know will come back and ask for another $2 billion and another $2 billion and another $2 billion when we could build a demonstration project that might cost $150 million or $200 million? There is nothing wrong with having coal-fired plants that don’t produce pollution; I am not against that. Even the Washington Post said the technology isn’t there. It is a boondoggle. Why would we do that?

We eliminated tonight a $246 million payback for the large movie studios in Hollywood.

We are going to spend $88 million to study whether we ought to buy a new ice breaker for the Coast Guard. You know what. The Coast Guard needs a new ice breaker. Why do we need to spend $88 million? They have two ice breakers now that they could retrofit and fix and come up with equivalent to what they needed to and not spend the $1 billion they are going to come back and ask for, for another ice breaker, so why would we spend $88 million doing that?

We are going to spend $448 million to build the Department of Homeland Security a new building. We have $1.3 trillion worth of empty buildings right now, and because it has been blocked in Congress we can’t sell them, we can’t raze them, we can’t do anything, but we are going to spend money on a new building here in Washington.

We are going to spend another $248 million for new furniture for that building; a quarter of a billion doll ars for new furniture. What about the furniture the Department of Homeland Security has now? These are tough times. Should we be buying new furniture? How about using what we have? That is what a family would do. They would use what they have. They wouldn’t go out and spend $248 million on furniture.

How about buying $600 million worth of hybrid vehicles? Do you know what I would say? Right now times are tough; I would rather Americans have new cars than Federal employees have new cars. What is wrong with the cars we have? Dumping $600 million worth of used vehicles on the used vehicle market right now is one of the worst things we could do. Instead, we are going to spend $600 million buying new cars for Federal employees.

There is $400 million in here to prevent STDs. I have a lot of experience on that. I have delivered 4,000 babies. We don’t need to spend $400 million on STDs. What we need to do is properly educate about the infection rates and the effectiveness of methods of prevention. That doesn’t take a penny more. You can write that on one piece of paper and teach every kid in this country, but we don’t need to spend $400 million on it. It is not a priority.

How about $150 million for a Smithsonian museum? Tell me how that helps get us out of a recession. Tell me how that is a priority. Would the average American think that is a priority that we ought to be mortgaging our kids’ future to spend another $150 million at the Smithsonian?

How about $1 billion for the 2010 census? So everybody knows, the census is so poorly managed that the census in 2010 is going to cost twice what it cost 10 years ago, and we wasted $800 million on a contract because it was no-bid that didn’t perform. Nobody got fired, no competitive bidding, and we blew $800 million.

We have $75 million for smoking cessation activities, which probably is a great idea, but we just passed a bill, the SCHIP bill, that we need to get 21 million more Americans smoking to be able to pay for that bill. That doesn’t make sense.

How about $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges? I mean, did we talk with Dell and Hewlett-Packard and say, How do we make you all do better? Is there not a market force that could make that better? Will we actually buy on a true competitive bid?

No, because there is nothing that requires competitive bidding in anything in this bill. There is nothing that requires it. It is one of the things President Obama said he was going to mandate at the Federal Government, but there is no competitive bidding in this bill at all.

We have $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas. Well, that will put 10 or 15 people to work. Is that a priority for us right now?

There is $6 billion to turn 20 Federal buildings into green buildings. Is that a priority, versus somebody getting a job outside of Washington, a job that actually produces something, that actually increases wealth?

How about $500 million for State and local fire stations? Where do you find in the Constitution us paying for local fire stations within our realm of prerogatives? None of it is competitively bid.

Next is $1.2 billion for youth activities. Who does that employ? What does that mean?

How about $88 million for renovating the public health service building? You know, if we could sell half of the $1.3 trillion worth of properties we have, we could take care of every Federal building requirement and backlog we have.

Then there’s $412 million for CDC [Centers for disease Control] buildings and property. We spent billions on a new center and headquarters for CDC. Is that a priority? If we are going to spend $412 million on building buildings, let’s build one that will produce something, one that will give us something.

How about $850 million for that most “efficient” Amtrak that hasn’t made any money since 1976 and continues to have $2 billion or $3 billion a year in subsidies?

Here is one of my favorites: $75 million to construct a new “security training” facility for State Department security officers. We already have four other facilities already available to train them. But they
want theirs. By the way, it is going to be in West Virginia. I wonder how that got there.

So we are going to build a new training facility that duplicates four others that we already have that could easily do what we need to do. But because we have a stimulus package, we are going to add in oink pork.

How about $200 million in funding for a lease – not buying, but a lease – of alternative energy vehicles on military installations?

We are going to bail out the States on Medicaid. Total all of the health programs in this, and we are going to transfer $150 billion out of the private sector and we are going to move it to the Federal Government. You talk about backdooring national health care.

Henry Waxman has to be smiling big today. He wants a single-payer Government-run health care system. We are going to move another $150 billion to the Federal Government from the private sector.

We are going to eliminate fees on loans from the Small Business Administration.. You know what that does? That pushes productive capital to unproductive projects. It is exactly the wrong thing to do.

We are going to spend $524 million for information technology upgrades that the Appropriations Committee claims will create 388 jobs. If you do the math on that, that is $1.5 million a job. Don’t you love the efficiency of Washington thinking?

We are going to create $79 billion in additional money for the States, a “slush fund,” to bail out States and provide millions of dollars for education costs. How many of you think that will ever go away?

Once the State education programs get $79 billion over 2 years, do you think that will ever go away? The cry and hue of taking “our money” away, even though it was a stimulus and supposed to be limited, it will never go away. So we will continue putting that forward until our kids have grandkids of their own.

There is about $47 billion for a variety of energy programs that are primarily focused on renewable energy. I am fine with spending that. But we ought to get something for it. There ought to be metrics. There are no metrics. It is pie in the sky, saying we will throw some money at it.

Let me conclude by saying we are at a seminal moment in our country. We will either start living within the confines of realism and responsibility or we will blow it and we will create the downfall of the greatest nation that ever lived.

I hope the American people know what is in this bill. I am doing everything I can to make sure they know. But more important, I hope somebody is listening who will treat the “pneumonia” we are faced with today, which is the housing and mortgage markets. It doesn’t matter how much money we spend in this bill. It is doomed to failure unless we fix that problem first.

Failing that, we will go down in history as the Congress that undermined the future and vitality of this country. Let it not be so.

SenecaFalls on
March 10th, 2009 3:11 pm

Market ends 379 points up.
Thank you Barack Obama. If we are going make you take blame when the markets are down surely we will congratulate you when the go up. Scared Monkeys are reasonable not irrational .
And thank you Senator Lyndsey Graham for your earmark for the Convention Center in South Carolina. And thank you diaper Dave Vitter for your $142 million dollars in earmarks for Louisiana. And thank you Senator Dole for your earmarks for North Carolina’s beaver problem. And thank you Senator Bennett for your earmarks for Utah’s crickets. What’s that Senator Murkowski you want your thank you too. Okay. Thank you to all the Republican U.S. Senators who worked so hard to bring the bacon home for your districts.
What’s that you say, the earmarks are only $7 billion out of $410 billion dollar bill. That’s a bargain. He– Paul Bremer lost $9 billion alone in one of Saddam’s palaces. This legislating is so much more effective than starting a democracy. Yeeeaaah for the USA.

rightknight on
March 10th, 2009 4:27 pm

Obama and his minions (or is it his handlers?) are running
around with an unlimited credit card, chargeable
to the taxpayers for generations to come. Ronald Reagan best
described this group of cavalier spenders as ‘Government is
like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end
and no sense of responsibility at the other.’ Certainly
no sense of representation of the people either!

da_wench on
March 10th, 2009 5:00 pm

The Bush Administration ripped off America and now the Republicans are blaming Obama for not fixing in 50 days what Bush ruined in 8 years. Bush and Cheney are war criminals. They and their families are rich beyond imagination. They are sitting back and laughing at how easy it was to steal from us and Iraq. Go ahead, blame Obama and worship Bush and Cheney.

john staton on
March 10th, 2009 5:29 pm

Reality check
Within 4 years Obama will increase the National Debt 3 times or more. What few have discussed is the likely effect on interest rates following this. Any one think that the current low rate of interest on Treasury Bills will continue? Better think again! Not only will the debt itself increase but the required rate of interest on the debt, new and old when rolled over, will increase 3-4 times. This means that the interest alone may consume as much as 60% of the Federal Budget by 2012. That leave no room for any of the current programs advocated by Omama and few of the prior existing programs of the Government.. JS

SenecaFalls on
March 10th, 2009 5:47 pm

Here’s what St. Ronnie said to Dick Cheney. “Deficits don’t matter Dick”
Here’s what Dick Cheney said to George W. Bush.”Ronald Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.”
The myth of the fiscal conservative is just that, a myth. See above re Diaper Dave Vitter, Libby Dole, Lyndsey Graham, Robert Bennett, Lisa Murkowski and add Mitch McConnel to the tune of $50 million for Kentucky. It is not Obama and his minions folks. You’ve met the enemy and it’s staring back at you from the mirror.

Michelle Smith on
March 10th, 2009 6:29 pm

#4 And just what do you think Obama is doing? Spend, spend, spend. He has spent more in his first 50 days than Bush in his entire 8 years.

Carpe on
March 10th, 2009 7:10 pm

Ehhhh, all Government is not bad. Sometimes it
can be downright entertaining!

What do those “true colors” look like to you? Looks like hypocrisy at it’s finest to me.

yoyo muffintop on
March 11th, 2009 12:26 am

Since, according to the majority of posters on this website, only republicans are real americans and only real americans live in states that voted republican in the presidential race and real americans don’t allow earmarks…let’s take a look at those “red” states.
Surely there cannot be one single republican “red” state in the top 10 in earmarks per capita right? Oops:

7 out of the top 10 biggest “earmark” states are Republican “red” states.
I guess all that “we are republicans and we take no earmarks unlike the earmark crazy democrats” bullsh$t was just that…bullsh$t. Ya got played. Lol.
__________
SM: Hey YOYO … West Virginia ain’t no RED State fool … it has two Dem Senators and Byrd was one of and always has been an abuser of earmarks. You do not count a state as how it voted, you count a state by what party represents it. Have you ever taken a poly sci or civics class?

If these Red states had actually had the people vote for the earmarks, they would not have. This is the reason why RED STATES are fools for electing tax and spend democrats to office. BTW, tax and spend republicans should be gone as well.

i’m not a republican nor am i a democrat, i just don’t like borat obama’s ideas. i’m sure he was a good crooked politician before he bought the white house.
i wonder if we called borat today and asked what was on his agenda would his answer be “uh, present” ?
you can’t repair the economy by raping the taxpayers borat. evidently he didn’t learn much at harvard. too much blow as he so lovingly
called it.

super dave on
March 11th, 2009 6:23 am

i wonder how many jobs obammy is going to create to take the lives of innocent babies ?

Dolf on
March 11th, 2009 7:43 am

Dave:

3

guy, girl and somebody with a hammer.

Michelle Smith on
March 11th, 2009 9:07 am

#10 Would you care to site your source for the following? #9 – Bush ripped it apart…ask him where it is: “Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!” George Bush

BTW, when we say we don’t like the earmarks, that goes for the Republicans as well. Stop all the damn wasteful spending. It’s not helping.

Jack Hammer on
March 11th, 2009 9:19 am

The people that run this site need to stick with what they know best – missing persons. And that is a stretch.

super dave on
March 11th, 2009 9:33 am

a song for obama:

wish i may,wish i might
have this wish i wish tonight
are you satisfied?
dig for gold, dig for fame
u dig for fame
are you pacified?

all the wants you waste
all the things you’ve chased
then it all crashes down
and you break your crown
and you point your finger
but there’s no one around
just want one thing
just to be the king
but your castle’s crumbled
and you’re left with just a name
where’s your crown king nothing?

hot and cold, bought and sold
a heart as hard as gold
are you satisfied?
wish i might wish i may
you wish your life away
are you pacified ?
all the wants you waste
all the things you’ve chased
then it all crashes down
and you break your crown
and you point your finger
but there’s no one around
just want one thing
just to play the king
but your castle’s crumbled
and you’re left with just a name
where’s your crown king nothing ?

super dave on
March 11th, 2009 9:42 am

oops double dipped again. dig for gold, dig for fame
you dig to make your name

yoyo muffintop on
March 11th, 2009 10:21 am

“You do not count a state as how it voted, you count a state by what party represents it. Have you ever taken a poly sci or civics class?”

we all need to write the whitehouse and let them know how we feel. i have done that along with writing every one of my reps to let them know how i feel about this legal robbery the whitehouse is doing. it will only make things worse. the mess oboma has made with just 2 months in office can you imagine how it is going to be in 4 years when his term is up, i did not vote for him, and i am so glad i did not,
people we need to stand up and let them all know how we feel, write every one of your reps and tell them enough is enough, this needs to stop

ANewGirl on
March 11th, 2009 3:43 pm

Wow ! Wall Street, Main Street….now our huge Economic crisis has even hit Sesame Street?? One of the oldest & greatest Children’s Television shows of all times today announced cut backs of at least 20% …… This is way out of control and scarier than ever. The word I kept shouting back before November still rings clear in my mind (and the MAIN reason I did not vote for Obama):

I N E X P E R I E N C E

#11- Yoyo—Once again, where do you come up with this BS???:

“Since, according to the majority of posters on this website, only republicans are real americans” no one on this website that I am aware of ever typed those exact words…but if they did I am sure you saved the post anyway since you have nothing else better to do with your time than finger point.

Like #13 Superdave- I’m neither a REP or DEM…AND very interesting (Non-biased) article in Time today, Yoyo- give it a read. I agree with it 100%.

“Wow ! Wall Street, Main Street….now our huge Economic crisis has even hit Sesame Street?? One of the oldest & greatest Children’s Television shows of all times today announced cut backs of at least 20%”

Big Bird was interviewed in line filing at the
local uneployment office and had this to say:

“You think you’re safe, until it happens to you!
and then you are all like… dammmm, now what
I gon’ do? How I gon’ get my baby money?”

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